Science Education International 
                   Vol. 27, Issue 4, 2016, 530-569 
                          STEM Education: A review of the contribution of the 
                    disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics 
                                                         
                                                                       *
                                         CHRISTINE V. McDONALD  
                   ABSTRACT: Recent global educational initiatives and reforms have focused on 
                   increasing the number of students pursuing STEM subjects, and ensuring students 
                   are well-prepared, and suitably qualified to engage in STEM careers. This paper 
                   examines  the  contributions  of  the  four  disciplines  -  Science,  Technology, 
                   Engineering and Mathematics - to the field of STEM education, and discusses 
                   STEM literacy; factors influencing students’ engagement in STEM education; 
                   effective  pedagogical  practices,  and  their  influence  on  student  learning  and 
                   achievement in STEM; and the role of the teacher in STEM education. Through a 
                   critical  review  of  237  studies,  three  key  factors  were  identified:  (1)  the 
                   importance of focusing on the junior secondary phase of schooling to maintain 
                   student interest and motivation to engage in STEM, (2) the implementation of 
                   effective  pedagogical  practices  to  increase  student  interest  and  motivation, 
                             st
                   develop 21  century competencies, and improve student achievement, and (3) the 
                   development of high-quality teachers to positively affect students’ attitudes and 
                   motivation towards STEM.  
                   KEY WORDS: STEM, STEM literacy, student interest, STEM pedagogies 
                                                INTRODUCTION 
                   Science,  technology,  engineering  and  mathematics  (STEM)  is  a  major 
                   emphasis in global initiatives seeking to enhance economic prosperity via 
                   a highly-educated workforce (Office of the Chief Scientist, 2014; Riegle-
                   Crumb, King, Grodsky, & Muller, 2012). As such, many countries have 
                   made  significant  investments  in  STEM  educational  initiatives  largely 
                   driven  by  concerns  about  potential  shortfalls  in  STEM  qualified 
                   professionals in the future (van Langen & Dekkers, 2005). The focus of 
                   many  initiatives  in  school  education  (Kindergarten-grade  12,  or  K-12 
                   hereafter) is twofold; to increase the number of students pursuing STEM 
                   subjects, and to ensure students are well-prepared and suitably qualified to 
                   engage in STEM careers  (Barker, Nugent, & Grandgenett, 2014; Bryan, 
                                                                         
                   *Corresponding Author: c.mcdonald@griffith.edu.au Griffith University, Australia 
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         Glynn & Kittleson, 2011; Sha, Schunn, & Bathgate, 2015; Vedder-Weiss 
         & Fortus, 2012).   
             STEM is an acronym commonly used to describe education or 
         professional practice in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and 
         mathematics. An authentic STEM education is expected to build students’ 
         conceptual  knowledge  of  the  inter-related  nature  of  science  and 
         mathematics, in order to allow students to develop their understanding of 
         engineering and technology (Hernandez et al., 2014). In many schools, 
         STEM education  is  heavily  focused  on  science  and  mathematics,  and 
         generally  ignores  the  critical  role  of  engineering  and  technology  in 
         preparing students to participate in an increasingly digital world (English, 
         2015).  Importantly,  it  is  recognised  that  interdisciplinary  and 
         transdisciplinary  approaches  to  STEM  integration  (whereby  the 
         knowledge  and  skills  learned  in  two  or  more  STEM  disciplines  are 
         applied  to  real-world  problems  and/or  used  to  deepen  understanding), 
         represent the ideal approaches to implementing authentic STEM in the 
         classroom (STEM Task Force Report, 2014). However, the large majority 
         of STEM research in the field of education has been conducted from a 
         disciplinary  perspective.  As  such,  this  paper  seeks  to  examine  and 
         integrate  findings  from  this  body  of  research.  An  emerging  body  of 
         research that examines STEM integration from an interdisciplinary and 
         transdisciplinary approach is beginning to take shape in the field (Honey, 
         Pearson, & Schweingruber, 2014), and this future research will provide 
         greater  insights  into  effective  STEM  pedagogical  practices  in  school 
         education. 
             Workforce  representation  in  STEM  is  uneven,  with  research 
         indicating  women  are  under-represented  in  STEM  professions  (Bøe, 
         Henriksen,  Lyons,  &  Schreiner,  2011),  particularly  in  mathematics, 
         physics, technology and engineering at the secondary and tertiary level; 
         and computer science and engineering at the professional level (Sullivan 
         & Bers, 2013). Importantly, although gender disparity is evident in the 
         field,  meeting the projected demands of an increased STEM workforce 
         has only been found to be a concern in particular professional fields. For 
         example,  current  enrolments  in  tertiary  life  and  health  sciences  are 
         considered  to  be  adequate  to  fulfill  future  workplace  needs,  however 
         concerns  have  been  raised  regarding  a  potential  shortage  of  qualified 
         engineers and ICT professionals (Bøe et al., 2011). At the school level, 
         research  indicates  that  students  in  developed  countries  are  reluctant  to 
         participate  in  STEM  subjects,  particularly  mathematics  and  physics 
         (Anderson,  Chiu,  &  Yore,  2010;  Hipkins  &  Bolstad,  2005;  Lyons  & 
         Quinn, 2010; Stine & Matthews, 2009) although interestingly, students in 
         developing  countries  display  a  stronger  interest  in  engaging  in  STEM 
         subjects and professions (Sjøberg & Schreiner, 2010). 
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             Students make decisions influencing their participation in STEM 
         careers during the secondary years of schooling. Around the age of 15, 
         students in many developed countries have the ability to choose whether 
         they will enroll in post-compulsory STEM subjects. As many of these 
         subjects are prerequisites for future study in tertiary settings, students who 
         elect not to study STEM subjects have fewer opportunities to engage in 
         society as STEM professionals (Ainley, Kos, & Nicholas; 2008). Thus, 
         positive experiences in the junior secondary years of schooling are critical 
         to facilitate future engagement in STEM subjects. Research indicates that 
         although most students recognise the importance of STEM to society, they 
         fail to see the importance of STEM to themselves as individuals. Many 
         students who do choose to enroll in STEM subjects in secondary school 
         make these decisions to aid entry into tertiary courses, as achieving highly 
         in STEM subjects generally facilitates higher tertiary entrance scores (Bøe 
         et al., 2011). 
            Other researchers have called for a focus on STEM in the earlier 
         years of schooling. Developing the competencies required to effectively 
         engage  in  STEM  requires  an  extended  time  period  (English  &  King, 
         2015).  As  such,  primary  schools  need  to  ensure  they  are  providing  a 
         supportive teaching and learning environment to cultivate the skills and 
         competencies  needed  for  effective  STEM  engagement  in  the  post-
         compulsory  years  of  schooling,  and  beyond  (Blank,  2013;  Duschl, 
         Schweingruber, & Shouse, 2007). The implementation of effective STEM 
         pedagogical practices by highly qualified teachers is critical to meet this 
         goal.  
                     REVIEW OF STUDIES 
          
         Research indicates that schools that do teach the four STEM disciplines 
         often do so in a disjointed manner, failing to integrate STEM in a unified 
         way (Atkinson & Mayo, 2010). An integrated STEM approach uses real-
         world contexts to investigate authentic problems using active learning and 
         teaching  approaches  (Hernandez  et  al.,  2014),  leading  to  improved 
         motivation,  and  enhanced  achievement  in  science  and  mathematics 
         (Furner & Kumar, 2007). This paper examines the contributions of the 
         four disciplines - Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics - to 
         the  field  of  STEM  education.  In  doing  so,  it  adopts  a  disciplinary 
         approach  to  STEM  integration  (Vasquez,  Sneider,  &  Comer,  2013) 
         whereby the contributions of the different disciplines are firstly examined 
         for  evidence  of  best  practice.  Following  this  examination,  common 
         themes are identified which are then amalgamated into a discussion of 
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                STEM  literacy;  factors  influencing  students’  engagement  in  STEM 
                education; effective pedagogical practices, and their influence on student 
                learning and achievement in STEM; and a discussion of the role of the 
                teacher in STEM education.  
                      In  the  first  round  of  analysis,  25  high  quality,  peer-reviewed 
                journals  (refer  to  Table  1)  were  identified  in  the  disciplines  of  science 
                education, mathematics education, technology education, and a variety of 
                interdisciplinary and general education journals. A search was conducted   
                in all 25 journals over the period 2010-2015. Keywords used to facilitate 
                the  search included  STEM, literacy, best practice, effective pedagogies, 
                interest, engagement, motivation, high-quality, teachers, and achievement. 
                In the second round of analysis, reference lists in papers deemed relevant 
                from the keyword search were scrutinised and key papers from these lists 
                were identified and accessed. Results of the analysis yielded a total of 237 
                papers, which were reviewed for the present paper. 
                                      STEM LITERACY 
                The  development  of  ‘literate’  citizens  in  the  various  disciplines  that 
                encompass STEM has been an important focus in international reform 
                documents. STEM literacy can be defined in numerous ways, including 
                “STEM literacy is the ability to identify, apply, and integrate concepts 
                from  science,  technology,  engineering,  and  mathematics  to  understand 
                complex problems and to innovate to solve them” (Balka, 2011, p. 7). 
                However, it is more common for reform documents to provide separate 
                definitions of literacy from each of the four disciplines. For example, the 
                                                                   st
                development of scientifically literate citizens is a key goal of 21  century 
                science education across the globe (Tytler, 2007). Scientifically literate 
                citizens  are  critical  thinkers  who  are  able  to  effectively  deal  with  the 
                consequences of our technologically-enhanced world (Bryan et al., 2011). 
                The  construct  of  scientific  literacy  is  multi-faceted  and  includes  the 
                development  of  competencies  for  lifelong  learning  (Bybee,  1997), 
                including an ability to engage in reasoning about complex societal issues 
                (Sabelli, 2006). For students to achieve scientific literacy they require: an 
                understanding of core scientific ideas, an appreciation of the variety of 
                methods of scientific inquiry, and an awareness of epistemological views 
                of science (Leuchter, Saalbach, & Hardy, 2014). Recent reform efforts in 
                the  United  States  evidenced  in the  Next  Generation  Science  Standards 
                (NGSS,  2013)  promote  active  learning,  the  provision  of  motivational 
                support  for  science  students,  and  the  development  of  communities  of 
                practice for authentic science learning (Scogin & Stuessy, 2015).  
                 
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